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Human beings have been fascinated by games since time immemorial it seems. Many of our most cherished games from the ancient world, Chess. Mao Jong, Go and numerous card games began their journeys as divinatory devices. Yes, trying to ascertain the future was a favourite past time in the ancient realm. Fortune telling was just that, an attempt to divine a person’s fortune, good or bad, before it befell them. Today, in the digital age, our games are all made up of pixels and bytes, but they seek to simulate real-world activities in the main.

Unique Video Games and Video Game Simulators

Fortune Builder, released in 1984, is credited as the first simulation video game, with SimCity not far behind in 1989. People even bet on the outcomes of the contests within these games, often with things other than recognised money. Skin bettors bet with the ‘skins’ or video game items of choice as their stake money online. Unique video games and video game simulators have captured the imaginations of a substantial section of the western world. For odds on a number of sporting contests, check them out, winning and losing has never been so easy and accessible for gamblers around the globe.

Video games can be funny and furious, charming and charmless, iconic and instantly forgettable, take your pick. They are legion in numbers, with game developers as prolific as rabbits. Some games involve characters, even taking out the trash; some people do this in real life and don’t find it that funny. Simulating games can reduce conceptions of the real world to, mere, fantasy of course, and this can be dangerous in the minds of simpletons. Turning everything into a game, can pull the rug out from beneath reality for some.

Then, we may be left with shooters in Los Vegas gunning down human beings, as if they were things on a flickering screen in a game. The virtual world and the real world are overlapping more and more. Who will stand victorious in the end? Will a Super Mario character loft the trophy above, mere, human beings? Game simulations are great teachers, as well, with applications in education, training, health, and throughout the corporate world. Games are only really reflections of ourselves, models of our cultural activities, sometimes warped, and often simplified. Understanding games and remembering that they are only games is important, if we are to go bravely forward into the future.

The term “video game” spans everything from playing a simple game of Solitaire on your own to massively multiplayer online games with whole virtual universes, where users interact with other players.

In addition to being fun, playing video games can reduce stress, lighten depression, increase vision, improve the ability to multi-task and improve decision-making skillsi. When you play online games you’re solving puzzles to move to the next level and that involves using some of the general knowledge and skills.

The Most Essential Gaming Item: The Master Key

Real life masterkey systems exists and in gaming has its fair share of unlockable, world-melting super weapons too, and we’ve collected all those in a separate feature, found here. Between these two features, you’re sure to unlock doors and most potent weapons and abilities gaming has to offer – or blister your thumbs up real good trying.

Metal Gear Solid 4

How to unlock it: The title ‘Big Boss’ isn’t something that’s handed out lightly in the Metal Gear universe – and this game is no exception. First, you need to finish MGS4 on any difficulty. This will unlock the ‘Boss Extreme’ difficulty mode, the toughest difficulty mode in the game. You then have to finish MGS4 again on this new difficulty mode, all while fulfilling several additional challenges. These include: finishing the game in less than 5 hours, no kills, no detection, and no using of health items. You basically have to know MGS4 better than your extended family, and have your entire route through it mapped out in advance.

Final Fantasy 7

How to unlock it: Obtaining Final Fantasy 7’s most powerful summon can be handled in a couple different ways, but each is a hair-ripping challenge. The summon itself is found on Round Island, a donut-shaped spit of land that’s impossible to explore without a gold chocobo. Obtaining the gold chocobo is the tricky part, as you must either go through a long and exhaustive chocobo breeding process that’s about as much fun as helping a horse give birth, or defeat Ruby Weapon (one of the game’s optional super bosses) and exchange the item you receive for a feathered friend. Alternatively, Knights of the Round is also part of the Master Materia set, but you have to defeat a different (and more challenging) super boss to get that.

Sonic

How to unlock it: Emeralds. You have to collect so many emeralds. First up are the eight classic Chaos Emeralds, which let you transform into Super Sonic. Once you have all those, you then need to collect eight more Super Emeralds to unlock Hyper Sonic. What all this means is that you’ll be spending a lot of time in the Blue Spheres minigame. These sadistic dexterity challenges find Sonic running along a spherical arena collecting blue orbs while avoiding red ones. Oh sure, those stages start out nice and easy, but the longer you take, the faster it gets, until you’re making split-second turns one after the other afraid to blinkbecause the screen ismoving sofastyoucan’tlookawaythesoundof collectingblueorbswill haunt yournightmares.

Darksiders 2

How to unlock it: Accessing Darksiders 2’s most powerful armor set requires you to collect lots and lots of stuff. We’re talking Banjo-Kazooie-levels of collectibles here, including (but not limited to) 40 tome pages, 30 relics, and 69 stonebites. Each one of these things is a tiny little item tucked away behind inconspicuous rocks or dark corners in the game’s world. Basically, everywhere you’d never look. And a lot of them are in dungeons – dungeons you’ll have to replay multiple times if you want to find everything. Darksiders 2 is a fun game, but having to redo the same dungeon multiple times while looking for the apocalyptic equivalent of a needle in a haystack is about as much fun as having to redo your taxes.

Dead Space 2s

How to unlock it: No matter what difficulty you choose, Dead Space 2 is a harrowing, frightening journey. Necromorphs pop out of vents, demon babies swarm at you, and seemingly sane folk turn into alien zombies at the drop of a hat. However, at its most difficult setting–Hardcore–youll have to fight tougher, more resilient foes with fewer resources than ever. If you manage to survive that ordeal, however, youll be rewarded.

The Legend of Zelda

How to unlock it: There are dozens of masks to unlock in Links second Nintendo 64 adventure, and while some (like the one that turns you into a powerful Goron) are easily unlocked, theres plenty of useless ones that are fairly difficult to acquire. If you can snag every mask in the core campaign–including the one you get for basically stalking a couple for three days straight instead of saving the world, and the one you have to wait to buy mere minutes before the moon crashes into Termina–youll earn a final mask that turns the games childlike Link into a god.

Resident Evil 2

How to unlock it: Snagging an A rank at the end of a Resident Evil 2 campaign is no easy feat. In addition to finishing the story in under three hours with three saves or less, you cant succumb to temptation and use first aid sprays or unlocked weapons that use infinite ammo. Granted, youll probably get good enough at the game to do this in the process of playing through the game six times, because youll need to do that to unlock the series weirdest character.

There are currently more than half a billion people worldwide who play computer or video games for at least an hour a day which may lead to Nintendo Neck.

What is Nintendo Neck? Most call it “text neck,” but it just refers to neck pain caused by looking down at video game screens, cell phones, and laptops for an extended period of time. The worst part is some may even slouch or hunch their shoulders while using electronics, which puts a great deal of stress on the spine.

Avoiding Nintendo Neck & The Killer Instinct ‘Chiropractor’

Posture plays an incredibly important role in our overall health because it affects muscle efficiency, breathing, mobility and injury prevention. When we have poor posture, our muscles have to work harder to hold our bodies up, and we increase our risk for musculoskeletal injury.

This is why “gaming posture”—which results from extended sitting in front of TV and computer consoles or leaning down to look at our cellphones for endless hours each day—does so much damage over time. Basically, the muscles on the front side of the body are shortened, while those on the back side of the body are lengthened and subsequently weakened. This means our muscles have to work harder to hold our bodies upright.

Stand up against the wall and make snow angel wing movements to release your neck and upper back.

A visit to your chiropractor. An ultra-sound therapy was speculated to be required for the most advanced symptoms together with a massage therapy can be used alongside chiropractic care to provide soft tissue therapy for overused muscle.

Most importantly a chiropractic adjustment is the best way to affect the nervous system which controls everything.

The idea of betting on games only happens before between friends or colleagues who are in the same room. But today, the Internet has allowed us to put our money on your favorite games and players. For video game aficionados out there, an array of websites is now offering players to participate in gaming events with the prospect of winning cash prizes, aside from the fame and prestige.

Spectators can also take part in these tournaments by placing a bet on their favored teams or players. Transactions happen online, with betting sites serving as the go-between. They are also the ones that arrange such competitions and take the buy-ins.

Playing as a Pro

Playing your favorite video game professionally seems to be “the life.” As it happens, there are people who actually work as pro video gamers, and they are bringing in a good deal of money from it.

Athletes such as Floyd Mayweather, Lebron James and Cristiano Ronaldo are among the highest paid athletes in the world to date. This being said, professional video game players are also starting to make it to the list as they pocket a lot of money from competitive gaming. They also get paid from sponsorship deals, and even just by streaming to the public their practice games. For instance, Peter “ppd” Dager came away with around two million dollars from Dota 2 tournaments he participated. Carlos “Ocelote” Rodríguez Santiago also won a whopping million dollars from eSports. He is best known for his “vitriolic streaks of bad sportsmanship” in World of Warcraft, as The Richest put it.

Life of a Pro Gamer

According to a feature article from The Verge, eSport gamers live a life of “uncommon discipline and perseverance.” It is also typical that their parents won’t approve of their line of work. Moreover, there are instances where supporters do not see the light on any of their defeats. More so, nearly all of the money are awarded to the best player.

As attractive and enticing as a pro gamer’s life may sound, not everyone can make a living from it. As a matter of fact, Business Insider reported that around 60 eSports players did earn at least $100,000 from competitive gaming last year. But before they reap their rewards, they have to play and practice the game for at least 12 hours daily.